Dalton, Tymber - Stoneface (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (25 page)

Did her sister really think that? Had Gwen been so wrong about her all those years? “But you’re their favorite. What do you have to be jealous over?”

Amy shrugged as she looked into her coffee cup. “You and Liam were always so close. I never fit in with you two.”

Gwen and Liam exchanged a glance. Liam raised a hand to still Gwen’s comments. “What are you talking about?” he asked.

Amy briefly glanced up at Gwen. “When she arrived, suddenly I didn’t matter anymore. You were always all over her. You and I used to play all the time and then little sister arrived and I didn’t matter anymore. I had to be the good child in their eyes because you two always banded together against them.”

“Are you
shitting
me?” Gwen said, unable to hold back. “You’re trying to blame all this on
me
?”

“No!” Amy vigorously shook her head. “No, that’s not what I’m saying.” She took a deep breath. “That’s not what I’m saying at all. It’s just that for so many years I was trying to keep my head down and be the good kid that I forgot who I was.” She played with her coffee mug. “I didn’t mean to get involved with…him.” Gwen suspected Amy almost slipped and mentioned his name. “I definitely didn’t mean to get pregnant. But I love him, and he loves me.” She looked up at them, defiance splashed across her face. “He makes me feel special. He says that I make him feel special.”

“You’re both special, all right,” Gwen snarked. “I’ll get you both hockey helmets and load you on the short bus to the special school. What were you two thinking? What about the guy’s wife? Do they have any kids?”

Amy shook her head. “No. But he’s always wanted them.” She shrugged. “This isn’t the way we wanted things to happen, but we don’t regret the fact that we want to be together.”

“Did either of you think about the guy’s poor wife!” She’d held back her feelings on this aspect of the fiasco long enough.

“Yes,” Amy said quietly. “That’s why we were trying to keep this hidden until after he’d left her. Then we were going to pretend that we started seeing each other after he was separated.”

Gwen sat back, disgusted with her sister. “Does she know yet, or has the chickenshit even told her? And how do you know he’s even telling you the truth?”

“Because he is,” Amy said defiantly. “There are special circumstances that I can’t tell you about.”

Gwen shook her head. “The only circumstances I need to know is that he’s a liar and a cheat, and if he cheated on his wife, he’ll damn sure cheat on you. Didn’t you learn anything from my experience with Dickweed?”

Liam tried to intervene. “Gee—”

Gwen waved him off. “No, fuck that, Li. I’m sick of Miss Holier-Than-Thou-I-Go-To-Church-And-Show-Off-For-Mom-And-Dad being held up as some stellar example of perfection!” She turned on Amy. “Let me tell you something. That poor woman, if the shit weasel even goes through with leaving her and doesn’t leave you hanging out to dry by yourself, is in for a lot of heartache and pain. Loss of trust. Wondering what was wrong with her that she wasn’t good enough for him.” She felt her own pain and anger from her divorce well up, mix with her fresh pain over losing Tim and Jack, and explode with a force that would make Mt. St. Helens look like a soggy, waterlogged firecracker.

Gwen felt her misery grow in proportion to her rage. “She’s going to go through a lot of anger and pain. She’s going to look at every man she meets in the future and wonder not if, but when, he’s going to lie to her and break her heart. She’s going to date guys who might be great, but hold them to a higher, possibly impossible standard of perfection. She’s going to doubt everything they tell her and look at herself in the mirror every morning and wonder what the fuck is so wrong with her that she can’t keep a guy.” She felt the tears rolling down her face and was vaguely aware that Liam had stood and grabbed her arm.

She shook him off and towered over her sister. “She’s going to wonder why you get to have what she wanted, what’s so special about you that wasn’t special about her. She’s going to feel like shit about herself all because you two couldn’t wait to do the decent thing and he couldn’t keep his pants zipped!”

Amy’s face grew red, but she didn’t say anything in her defense. She didn’t look up at Gwen.

For some reason, that infuriated Gwen even more. “Now you’re going to have a baby with this guy? A guy you can’t even trust not to go running around on you later?”

“He’s not like that,” Amy firmly said.

“No, I’m sure he’s not.” Gwen’s voice dripped with sarcasm. “I’m sure he’s Mr. Perfect, and his wife’s a total whackjob, right? He would neeever cheat on you because you’re so speeeecial,” Gwen said. In full attack mode, she wasn’t about to back down until she’d had her say. Or run out of steam. “Well, let me tell you something. I don’t envy you. I really don’t. Because you’re in for a world of pain and misery. Maybe right now everything with him seems rosy and beautiful, but once a cheat, always a fucking cheat. And I’m going to be the first to say I told you so when he tosses you aside!”

“Gwen!” Liam barked. “Enough, sweetie.”

Gwen swiped at her tears. Amy still wouldn’t look up, but she spoke. “I’ll be out of here this morning after I change clothes. Thank you for picking me up last night, and thank you for loving me enough to be worried about me when I was gone. I’m sorry I put you both through that.” She pushed back from the table and left the kitchen.

Gwen took a few deep breaths before she started sobbing and crumpled into Liam’s arms.

“It’s okay, Gee,” he softly said as he held her. “Richard can’t hurt you anymore.”

“I loved them,” she sobbed. “I loved them both. What am I supposed to do now?”

He knew who she meant. “I don’t have any easy answers for you, sis. But taking your pain out over Tim and Jack on Amy isn’t going to help you or her. Her guy isn’t Richard.”

“He’s going to use her like he’s used his wife.”

“Maybe, but you don’t know that for sure.”

She cried for a few more minutes before retreating to her room. She didn’t come out until after Amy had left in a cab less than an hour later. She regretted blowing up at her sister and knew she shouldn’t have done it.

But why did it feel so good to finally get that old crap out of her system?

Chapter
Twelve

Gwen looked over Liam’s shoulder as he hacked into Amy’s online calendar. He pointed. “There.”

“Can you e-mail that to me?” Gwen felt a little bad about the invasion of privacy, but only a little. She’d tried calling Amy several times over the past three days, reaching her voice mail every time.

All she’d received in return was a brief e-mail from Amy telling her the apology was accepted.

Gwen felt bad. She deserved the silent treatment from Amy after the things she’d said to her, but she wanted to say them to her in more than just a recorded voice mail. She wanted to try to rebuild a bridge that apparently was never really there in the first place.

Amy wouldn’t talk to Liam, either. He’d received a frantic call from their mother a day earlier, telling them Amy had arrived with a couple of friends and a moving truck while their father was at work.

Apparently Amy didn’t drop the bomb about the baby or her secret guy on the side. She only told their mother that with Liam gone, she’d received an offer to be roommates with a friend of hers who needed the financial help to keep her house from going into foreclosure.

Gwen didn’t approve of the lie, but she did admire Amy’s ingenuity. It was a story their mother might not like, but she couldn’t guilt-trip Amy too terribly much, considering the supposed circumstances.

In a way, Gwen felt sorry for her mom. She was now stuck at home, alone, with their father.

Gwen wanted to have a relationship with her sister. She’d eat crow, apologize like hell, and bite her tongue clean in two if she had to. And if this was the only way she could get Amy to sit still for a few minutes to talk to her, so be it. She wanted to apologize to her sister and try to make amends. This was no time to be petty.

This was a time for her to man up, so to speak, put the past behind her, and be there for her sister.

Liam nodded, brought up another window, and a second later Gwen’s BlackBerry buzzed. “There you go,” he said.

“That’s this afternoon?”

“Yep.”

“Am I doing the right thing?”

He shrugged. “If I thought I could shake some sense into her myself, I would.”

“You going to be okay by yourself?”

“Yeah. I’ll only slow you down. Call me when you know what’s up, okay?”

She kissed his cheek. “Yeah.”

All the way to the doctor’s office, Gwen wondered how to handle this. She wanted her sister back, wanted her in her life.

Missed her like hell.

No, they didn’t always get along the greatest growing up, but she was usually an ally, or at the very least a buffer, against their parents now that they were adults. Despite the angry words she’d tossed at Amy in the kitchen the other morning, there were times she could remember Amy trying to step in when their mom or dad started in on Gwen over her career choice.

I will not lose my temper.
She took a deep breath and let it out again. If nothing else, she could mend the rift with her sister, and the three of them could have a relatively peaceful, supportive relationship. Even if it was only because they’d united against their parents.

Amy would need help, because Gwen strongly suspected the baby’s father wouldn’t be involved that much. Despite Amy’s assurances to the contrary, Gwen knew what men could be like. Especially lying, cheating assholes who got women other than their wives pregnant. And besides, Amy didn’t need a man in her life. She had enough in savings to get her by until she started working full time again. Gwen and Liam would babysit for her. They could talk her into moving in with them.

She wistfully smiled. Kids of her own weren’t on the radar, especially now and maybe never, but she wouldn’t mind being able to spoil a niece or nephew rotten. Liam would make a great uncle. He wasn’t much more than a big kid himself in many ways.

This would all work out okay, once they finished running interference for Amy with their parents. They’d take the brunt of it for her, shelter her, let her focus on being a mom so she could enjoy it as much as possible.

She didn’t see Amy’s car when she pulled into the parking lot. She parked off to the side, hopefully where Amy wouldn’t notice her.

Her nerves a jangled mess, Gwen walked into the doctor’s office and was surprised to find Amy already sitting in the waiting room. Amy didn’t look up when she walked in, until Gwen walked over to her.

Amy’s jaw dropped. “Gwen! What are you doing here?”

She sat beside her. “Please, don’t be mad at me. I’m sorry we fought and I lost my temper.” She grabbed her sister’s hands. “I’m so sorry. I was a total bitch, and you didn’t deserve for me to go off on you like that. Listen to me, Liam and I love you, and we want to support you in this. We don’t want you going through this alone. Liam and I agree we want you to live with us. We’ll help you take care of the baby. We’ll babysit for you when you go back to work, and we’ll help you with Mom and Dad.”

She shook her head. “I–I–”

“Stop, please. Let me finish. We don’t care what happened or why, and we’re not going to play the stupid blame games Mom and Dad are so fond of. It happened, and we’re here for you.” She took a deep breath. “We mean it. We’ll—” Her voice broke off as Ruthie’s husband, Bob Tamsin, emerged from the bathroom and froze when he saw Gwen sitting there. After a moment’s stunned shock, he walked over

“Bob? What are you doing here?” Gwen asked. Then she looked at Amy and spotted her horrified expression. The Rapid City desk clerk’s description of the man Amy stayed with came back to Gwen.